In yet another showdown between the US and Iran, the United States Navy recently issued a warning to mariners in the Gulf to stay 100 meters away from US warships; saying, on failing to do so, it will be ‘interpreted as a threat and subject to lawful defensive measures’.

The notice to mariners follows US President Donald Trump’s threat last month to fire on any Iranian ships that harass Navy vessels.

This is not the first time that the two countries have clashed. Earlier on several occasions, the relations between the US and the Middle Eastern country, have reached a flashpoint. Here’s a look at the history of conflict between the two:

• The tricky relations between the two countries have been going on for over 65 years and started in 1953 with CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Iran’s then Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq, who had thought of nationalizing country’s oil industry

• The ties further strained in 1979, during the Iranian Revolution when massive protests broke out against US-backed Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pehalevi, who was forced to leave the country by religious and secular leaders. The same year, the protests in Tehran seized the US embassy in Iran in November 1979, holding the Americans as hostages for over 400 days.

• In 1985 the US secretly shipped weapons to Iran, in lieu of help from Teheran in freeing American hostages held by Hezbollah militants. The profits were illegally sent to rebels in the Central American nation – Nicaragua. This created a political crisis for-the then US president Ronald Reagan.

•  Three years after the incident in 1988, the US warship shot down an Iranian Air Flight on its way to Mecca, killing 290 people on board. The US later said that the airbus was mistaken for a fighter jet.

•  In 2002, reports surfaced that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, including the Uranium enrichment plant, which was followed by a decade of sporadic Iranian engagement with the United Nations. Post this several sanctions were imposed by the UN, US and the European Union against Iranian government. This caused Iran’s currency to lose its value by two-thirds in only two years

•  In 2013, for the first time in 30 years, the then US President Barack Obama spoke to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Thereafter in 2015, Iran shook hands on a nuclear deal with US, UK, France, Russia and Germany. In the agreement, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities, in return sought lifting of economic sanctions

• The relations further strained when in May 2018 as President Trump abandoned the nuclear deal, restored the economic sanctions and threatened to sever ties with any country that buys oil from Iran. This led to a steep fall in Iran’s economy.

•  In May, June 2019, the US accused Iran of shooting down six oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. On June 20, Iran shot down a US military drone over the Strait of Hormuz, which the US claimed was in international waters.

•  In January 2020, the US killed Iran’s top military commander, Gen Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq; after which Iran vowed ‘severe revenge’ and withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord.